The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, through Croatia’s permanent representative to the Council of Europe, sent a note to Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatović, expressing protest over her statement that the memorial service for the Bleiburg victims in Sarajevo could turn into a glorification of the Ustasha regime.
The note underlines that the freedom to manifest one’s religion is an inalienable part of human rights, guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a number of other declaratory and legal documents, as well as by the European Convention on Human Rights. Furthermore, it states that holding a memorial service is a religious act, devoid of any kind of political or legal connotation.
The note also states that the Commissioner, by making unacceptable statements that run contrary to her mandate, has one-sidedly and irresponsibly joined the political discourse of those who use said memorial service to further flame social divisions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the context of the culture of remembrance and the condemnation of totalitarian regimes, the Ministry recalled Council of Europe Resolution 1481 (2006) and the European Parliament Resolution of 19 September 2019, stating that the Commissioner has devalued efforts to commemorate victims of totalitarian regimes and has acted contrary to the goals and purposes of said resolutions.